


Winter Storm Stiles

by 42hrb



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Snowed In, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 00:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13260087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/42hrb/pseuds/42hrb
Summary: Stiles isn't looking forward to weathering his first snow storm on his own, then he meets a handsome stranger at the grocery store who might be able to help.





	Winter Storm Stiles

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I haven't written Sterek in a while so sorry if this is complete trash (it probably is, I'm not actually sorry)
> 
> Inspired by the 'Bomb Cyclone' that's headed up the East Coast. Stay cozy my friends.

The thing was, Stiles wasn’t build for winter. He grew up in California, the winters had been relatively mild in D.C. the three years he’d lived there, he went to grad school back in California, and he’d gotten his PhD at Duke; he wasn’t bred to handle the snow and bitter cold. So naturally his first winter as an associate professor at Brown was one of the worst winters the East Coast had seen in 100 years.

_ Naturally _ .

He wasn’t bitter about it, but he  _ was _ bitterly cold and he definitely didn’t know how to drive well in the snow, but he was managing. Or at least he thought he was handling it until they closed the school because of the weather and his coworkers were talking about their emergency candles and propane heaters, about having stocked up on food they could cook without electricity and having cases of water in case the pipes froze.

That was when Stiles realized he was in over his head.

“Do you have electric heat or gas?” Allison, his favorite professor in his department, asked as they walked to their cars through the freezing campus.

“Gas?” Stiles guessed. His gas bill had been way higher since the winter kicked into full gear so he figured it was a good guess, “Yeah, gas.”

“Well that’s good at least,” She tugged her scarf tighter around her face, “Get some bread, peanut butter, oranges, maybe some other veggies, and other stuff that won’t go bad if the power goes out. And don’t forget water.”

“And beer?”

“And beer,” She confirmed with a laugh, “I’d go straight from here to the store, hopefully we’re still early enough that there will be stuff left. I’m lucky Lydia’s last class was at 9 and she went for us.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Stiles bumped her shoulder, “Brag about how great your wife is while I’m still painfully single.”

“I told you I could set you up with our friend that teaches at Providence,” Allison reminded him for the millionth time, “Just say the word.”

“I’m not that lonely yet, I have Cat.”

“Okay Audrey,” Allison laughed and got into her car, “Text me if you have any questions about surviving your first winter storm. Make sure your flashlight has batteries!”

“Thanks,” Stiles waved as he got into his own car, grateful that his new Jeep had four-wheel drive as he pulled onto the already snowy roads.

The parking lot at Whole Foods was a disaster. Stiles parked as far away from the store with the clearest path to the exit as possible, figuring it was better to brave the cold and snow than deal with everyone else driving on the same slick pavement.

By the time he made it into the store he had seen almost three accidents and decided that his parking choice had been the right one. He grabbed a cart and headed into the store, making a b line toward the bread.

He was glad he did, because there were only a few loaves left. He grabbed one and tossed it onto his cart, avoiding eye contact with the guy who had been reaching for the same loaf. He didn’t need anyone’s attitude right now, he needed peanut butter.

The store was out or nearly out of a lot of the basic stuff that Stiles would have normally bought, like eggs, milk, and Lucky Charms, so he settled for almond milk and knock off Marshmallow Stars before he grabbed a case of water and a case of IPAs.

Allison’s voice was in his head reminding him to get fruits and vegetables as he tossed chips and salsa into his cart. He frowned, but made his way back to the fresh produce to grab some apples and a bag of carrots.

“Nope,” A voice said behind him as Stiles grabbed the last bag of baby carrots from the display, “You took the last loaf of actual bread, you don’t get the last of the carrots.”

Stiles turned and his jaw almost dropped, the guy standing behind him looked like he’d walked off the pages of GQ, his pea coat unbuttoned and scarf hanging around his neck, his stubble artfully shaped, his eyes a kaleidoscope of colors.

“You snooze you lose buddy,” Stiles almost winked, but this guy was about his size and even though Stiles was in pretty good shape for 30, he didn’t want to risk getting his ass kicked at Whole Foods right before a storm, “There are some radishes still.”

Hot-angry-face glowered as Stiles tossed the carrots into his cart and moved on toward the apples. As if the guy could sense where Stiles was going next, he grabbed the last bag of granny smith and smirked when Stiles glared, “You snooze you lose.”

“That’s just mean,” Stiles looked at the apples longingly, “What if I gave you half my bag of carrots.”

“And half that loaf of bread,” The guy added quickly.

“Fine.”

“Great.”

“Awesome.”

“I’m Derek,” He stuck out his hand, “I would say I’m sorry about this, but I was here for the last big storm and I lost power so I need the bread.”

“I’m Stiles,” He shook Derek’s hand, “I’m from California and the thought of more than an inch of snow makes me want to learn how to hyberate through the winter.”

Derek laughed as they walked toward the checkout, the line was at least ten people long, “Then I’d avoid Upstate New York. I taught in Buffalo for a couple years and we got  _ six feet of snow _ in four days one November.”

“Holy shit,” Stiles shuddered at the thought, “I’m guessing they closed school?”

A laugh escaped Derek’s mouth, “They didn’t close the college where I was teaching in time and a bunch of commuter students ended up having to sleep on cots in the gym. I lucked out and took the subway before  _ that _ shut down too.”

“Jesus Christ I’m never going to Buffalo,” Stiles muttered, moving up as the line moved, “I got my PhD down in North Carolina and we had an inch of snow once and everything shut down for two days.”

“You’re kidding,” Derek laughed again. When he wasn’t accosting Stiles over bread and carrots he had a great smile, “My sister lives in Argentina now and she refuses to visit me in the winter because she hates the snow.”

“So, do you think the power will go out?” Stiles asked after a beat, not wanting the conversation to end.

“If we’re lucky it won’t, but mine went out during the last big storm,” Derek said with a little frown, Stiles had the urge to smooth out the line that it put between his eyes, “It sucked.”

“I’m not looking forward to being alone for this,” Stiles admitted for the first time. He knew that he should have taken Allison and Lydia up on their offer to stay with them, but he didn’t want to interrupt their chance at some quality  _ alone _ time.

“Maybe - ,” Derek started, then stopped, looking down.

“Maybe what?” Stiles didn’t let himself think that Derek was going to suggest they weather the storm together, but he hoped.

“It’s dumb,” Derek pressed forward, “But maybe we could take on the storm together? We are sharing bread and carrots after all.”

“That makes sense to me,” Stiles grinned and Derek grinned back, “Uh, could we possibly make it my place? I didn’t leave enough food out for Cat.”

“Sure,” Derek nodded and added, “My last name is Hale by the way, if you wanted to make sure I’m not a murderer. My sisters tell me I have murder face.”

Stiles pulled out his phone and texted the name to his buddy Danny who worked for the FBI, “Mine’s Stilinski, and I warn you, when I was 17 I found a dead body in the woods, sometimes that article pops up when you Google me.”

Derek laughed, “Good to know.”

A minute later Stiles phone buzzed with a text from Danny telling Stiles that the guy was clear besides some speeding tickets and that he better hit it since he was  _ hot _ . Stiles sent him a wink, “You’re all clear on my end. I will gladly weather this storm with you Mr. Derek Hale.”

Derek’s smile was electric, “You better not eat more than half the bread.”

“I would never.”

Thirty-five minutes later they had made it safely to Stiles house, “It’s not much yet, but it’s home.”

“Did you move recently?” Derek eyes the boxes in the corner of the dining room.

“Uh, back in August,” Stiles blushed a little, “I’m a professor over at Brown and they keep us pretty busy.”

“It’s January,” Derek found the kitchen light and they started to put the groceries away, “We can finish unpacking it if you want, we have the time.”

“Or,” Stiles countered,” We could make one of these shitty frozen pizzas, binge watch Black Mirror, and get to know each other.”

“Or we could do that,” Derek ran a finger up Stiles’ arm, making him shiver, “Can I borrow sweats?”

“Pants can be optional,” Stiles blurted out and then covered his mouth. He thought he had gained control over his word vomit around attractive people, apparently, he had not.

“Maybe in the bedroom,” Derek stepped closer, “But for now it’s cold and I’d like to cuddle on that couch, each shitty pizza, and get to know you a little better.”

“Okay cool,” Stiles blushed again, fucking hell it was like he was back in high school and Lydia had asked him to be her lab partner all over again, “I’ll just – I’ll go get those.”

When Stiles came back down, wearing his own pair of sweats and a sweater, Derek was sitting on the couch with Cat on his lap, “Did you name her after Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”

“It was my mom’s favorite movie,” Stiles scooped her up and handed Derek the pants, “We used to watch it every Sunday night when she got sick. When she died I couldn’t watch it for like five years, but now I try to keep up her tradition.”

“That’s nice,” Derek changed and Stiles averted his eyes, “My mom loves My Fair Lady.”

“Another classic,” Stiles nodded sagely, sitting on the couch about two feet from where Derek had been sitting. When Derek sat down he sat closer to Stiles, “So, Black Mirror?”

“Sure,” Derek kicked his feet onto the table, “And then you can tell me what you teach.”

“Political science,” Stiles flipped the TV on and found the Netflix app, “With a focus on foreign relations, especially intergovernmental cooperation.”

“My friend Ally teaches polisci at Brown, do you know her? Argent?”

“Are you kidding me?” Stiles laughed and Cat jumped off him, surprised, “Do you happen to teach at Providence?”

“I do, why?”

“Ally and Lydia have been trying to set us up for months,” Stiles laughed again, “And I kept saying no.”

“Wait,  _ you’re _ the new guy they keep talking about?” Derek was laughing now too.

“What are the fucking chances,” Stiles was half tempted to text Allison and Lydia, but he didn’t want to give them the satisfaction.

“It looked like we were just meant to meet, huh,” Derek leaned closer to Stiles, his breath ghosting over Stiles cheek.

Stiles swallowed, “Looks like it.”

Then they were kissing and Stiles was mentally kicking himself for not meeting Derek sooner. When they broke apart Derek’s eyes were still closed, but he said, “This is going to be so much better than being snowed in alone.”

Stiles nodded in agreement, kissing Derek again. They didn’t stop until the timer beeped and they went to check on the pizza, and then they didn’t stop until the pizza was cool enough to eat.

Two days later temperatures were still subzero, but they were out of beer, so Stiles and Derek ventured out to the store again, this time holding hands. They ran into Allison and Lydia who invited themselves over to Stiles for store bought lasagna and boxed wine.

Allison and Lydia passed out on the couch around midnight wrapped up in several blankets and snuggled together. Stiles and Derek on the other hand, well they found different ways to stay warm.   

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](exhuastedpigeon.tumblr.com)


End file.
